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Nu Music Monday #58 / 31-01-2021

Jan 31, 2022

Hey there,

I’m Red, and welcome to Nu Music Monday. Glad to have you here.

Every week I share my favorite tracks released in the past seven days (-ish). I also go into the latest music news when I feel like it and share stuff I think is worth your time.

Amber Mark releases one of the hottest records of the year yet and Charli XCX’s new doc takes us back to a time I’d rather forget.

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Amber Mark - Three Dimensions Deep

Amber Mark’s debut album chronicles her journey through insecurities, coping mechanisms and the reframing of life’s big questions.

Three Dimensions Deep charts the progress Amber Mark has made on her path forward from crippling fears to the realization not all questions require an answer. Earlier projects 3:33am (2017) and Conexão (2018) have prepared the ground for Mark’s first album by giving her space and time to hone her craft as both a songwriter and a producer before launching into orbit on Three Dimensions Deep.

The most emblematic track of Mark’s re-alignment, “What It Is”, feels so spacious despite its small number of parameters. Mark channels Stevie Wonder with subtle cadence shifts and pristine harmonization. “What is the point of it all?” she asks, caressing the firmament with plush velvet vocals. The sentiment is reprised in stand out “On & On”, where Mark sighs “Feeling like there’s more to life / Wish that I could see the signs” to a fizzy hearty beat.

Read my full review in Riot Magazine.

Charli XCX - Alone Together

Charli XCX chronicles the first COVID-19 surge through a creator’s lens in new doc

A brief intro filmed during her 2019 headlining tour immediately sets the scene for “Alone Together,” a new documentary by Charli XCX that’s meant as a pairing for 2020’s made-at-home album How I’m Feeling Now.

On the introspective deep dive, a chirpy Charli XCX is shown on and off stage while a stern counterpart narrates a story that initially seems at odds with the outlook. “Nothing is good enough,” the artist, who’s name is Charlotte Aitchison, says. This plants the seeds for a recurring theme of the hour-long film. The project then mostly covers the five-week period leading up to the release of the album Aitchison made in quarantine shortly after the pandemic hit the world. (The film also precedes a new album on the way in March).

Read my full piece in Riff.